Soldiers of the Air Mobile Brigade from Assen will practice in the three northern provinces until the end of next week. Next Monday, a large-scale training is planned in the Marnehuizen practice village near Lauwersoog. And that is important, believes Lieutenant Colonel Laurens van Leussen of Defense.
“When the Russians invaded Ukraine, it was this unit that was first sent to Romania, to demonstrate to NATO that our alliance is strong. And also to strengthen Europe’s eastern flank. Then it comes close. And it indicates the importance of being trained and deployable when we are called upon. That makes this type of training important.”
“It concerns part of the airmobile brigade, the Red Berets, a quickly deployable unit of the army. We work with helicopters and planes, these are complex operations. You have to train that well, so that when you are deployed you also can be used immediately,” explains Van Leussen.
The exercises started on Monday, largely with Leeuwarden Air Base as a base. “But we use the three northern provinces, so Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe. With helicopters and all the units involved, we will go through a number of operations and train all procedures, so that we remain a quickly deployable unit.”